Policing Peterborough: Shoplifting is significant issue for us

The Minister also states that police should look into every offence where there is CCTV footage.

Given that Peterborough is a busy city with many shops, it is fair to say that shoplifting represents a significant issue for us. Since the start of April this year, we have seen a 15 percent increase in shoplifting, with shoplifting representing about 7.5 percent of all crimes committed here.

There is a perception that shoplifting is not always treated as a priority by the police, especially when the value of stolen goods is low. There is also a feeling that shoplifting is a low-risk and high-reward activity that has encouraged repeat offenders and organised crime groups targeting retailers. While both of these statements are true, it is fair to say that there is no such thing as an “average shoplifter”, and our officers have to treat every incident on its own merit.

It might be a child shoplifting while out on a Saturday with their friends, a parent with no convictions stealing food or nappies for their child, or as we often see here, someone with significant addiction issues shoplifting to fund drugs. This in turn fuels the wider issues we encounter with dealers fighting for control of a drug market and using high levels of violence against each other.

It is mainly people falling into the last category who repeatedly appear in our courts, spend periods of time in prison and sadly often come out and re-offend. We have pushed the use of Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs) in recent months to give us additional powers to target prolific offenders, and we are working closely with Peterborough City Council to use city centre CCTV to best effect, an approach that has already seen people prosecuted for breaches of CBOs and sent to prison.

We also detect 28 percent of all reported shoplifting offences, and while this is amongst our best detection rates for any crime, I believe we can be even better. To achieve this, we need the city to pull together to support us and our businesses. This includes retailers investing in better quality CCTV systems so we can prove offences beyond any doubt, security staff working together to identify and warn each other when shoplifters are in the area, sharing information on what is happening in their stores, and importantly supporting us in prosecuting every single offence committed.

We will be stepping up police patrols in the City Centre and out-of-town retail outlets, especially in the run-up to Christmas when more people will be about. I have also asked my teams to focus on these crimes and look at every opportunity to charge people with multiple offences, and also to apply for Criminal Behaviour Orders whenever the threshold is reached.